Headlines

George Will

A cliff of Democrats’ own choosing

With a chip on his shoulder larger than his margin of victory, Barack Obama is approaching his second term by replicating the mistake of his first. Then his overreaching involved health care — expanding the entitlement state at the expense of economic growth. Now he seeks another surge of statism, enlarging the portion of gross domestic product grasped by government and dispensed by politics. The occasion is the misnamed “fiscal cliff,” the proper name for which is: the Democratic Party’s agenda. …

Liberals’ strenuous objection to vouchers is that vouchers, as the functional equivalent of cash, empower individuals to make choices. It is the business of the liberals’ administrative state, staffed by experts, to make choices for inexpert individuals. This is why, while Democrats in Washington are working to reduce the portion of Americans’ private income that is disposed of by private choices, two tentacles of the Democratic Party — the Indiana and Louisiana teachers unions — are in their states’ courts waging futile fights against school choice programs, lest thousands of low- and moderate-income parents be as empowered as millions of demobilized servicemen were.

Washington’s contentiousness about the “cliff” is producing a blizzard of numbers. The argument, however, is not about this or that tax rate but about the nature of the American regime. When the Republican House majority acts as though it has a mind — and a mandate — of its own, this is not Washington being “dysfunctional,” it is the separation of powers functioning as the Founders intended. Their system requires concurrent congressional majorities — one in the Senate, with its unique constituencies and electoral rhythms, another in the House, with its constituencies and rhythms. And at least 219 of the 234 House Republicans won in November by margins larger than Obama’s national margin.

Blowback

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One argument for Big Government is … interstate highways. Don’t you want interstate highways?! As if that costs $1.5 trillion a year. Another argument … Mississippi. Mississippi just can’t take care of itself, so Big Government has to dictate not just to them but to every state for fear they become a Mississippi.

We send money to Washington DC so they can send it back to us with strings, and then we’re supposed to be grateful for the miracle of Big Government taking care of our needs. Well, where did that money come from in the first place? Sending it to them, so they can send it back to us … what? Huh? It’s maddening.

We send money to Washington DC so they can send part of it back to us with strings, and then we’re supposed to be grateful for the miracle of Big Government taking care of our needs. Well, where did that money come from in the first place? Sending it to them, so they can send part of it back to us … what? Huh? It’s maddening.

Not to mention it was the Democrats who planned for this to happen when they specifically designed tax changes that would expire on their own. Taxes will go up Jan. 1 regardless of an extension on the Bush tax cuts because of ObamaCare and the payroll tax cut expiring.